Understaffed Sittwe General Hospital to remotely monitor Covid-19 patients

By DMG 24 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
24 July 2021, Sittwe 

Covid-19 patients will be remotely monitored using CCTV cameras at Sittwe General Hospital as the hospital is understaffed, said the Arakan State Administration Council of Myanmar’s military regime. 

The hospital already has security cameras but they are not working, so authorities will have them fixed and more installed inside four Covid-19 patient wards and an intensive care unit to minimise contact and exposure, said council spokesman U Hla Thein. 

“In non-serious Covid-19 cases, doctors can’t check the patients too often. So, they will be remotely monitored through CCTV cameras. If necessary, doctors will go and check them. So, we will have the cameras fixed,” he explained. 

During the first and second waves of coronavirus in Myanmar, the Ministry of Health and Sports dispatched doctors from Yangon to help treat patients in Sittwe. But no doctor has been sent from Yangon this time as the commercial capital itself is struggling to contain the virus, said U Hla Thein.

On condition of anonymity, a Covid-19 patient receiving treatment in Sittwe said: “I understand the hospital is understaffed. But it doesn’t always work to tell my symptoms over the phone. I want to have face-to-face consultations with doctors.” 

Currently, doctors and nurses check non-critical Covid-19 patients three times per day at Sittwe General Hospital. 

Myanmar’s healthcare system has been stretched to the breaking point as Covid-19 infections rise to unprecedented highs amid a civil disobedience movement (CDM) in protest of the military regime and its February 1 coup. The CMD has included many hospital staff across the country who have refused to work for the junta.  

DMG was unable to reach Sittwe General Hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr. Khin Khin Zaw, to ask about the number of doctors working at the hospital.